A simple Hack that still works for me after years:
1. Place a tiny LED (red or yellow) by the side of your monitor or virtually on the screen corner. Basically anywhere almost bordering your field of view.
2. Make it blink like a fast heartbeat (120-150 bpm) and gradually slowdown to around 60 bpm (or your slow heartbeat base). Make the slope approx 20 to 60 minutes (you can adjust the best rate by testing in 10m increments after a few days in one setting).
Now...
3. Get to work regardless if distracted and agitated. Close all apps except what you need to work and BOOM!, let the magic happen. Without realising, your brain will try to sync with the light that you can barely see, calming you down and allowing you to go focus-mode with the task in had.
Works like hypnosis!
It is also a cheap hack... I build my unit with a cheap ESP32 and heart-rate sensor to sync deeper and dynamically adjust the slope...
Will explain better if any interest.
No science behind (only principles), I just hammered a solution like any Ape with the shakes would need!
- once the LED has slowed down to 60 bpm, do you keep it at that tempo for the rest of the day? for a few hours? do you ever go back to 120 bpm and then go back down?
- generally speaking, how did you come up with the idea?
- do you think that a software version (i.e. some blinking pixels in the top right corner of a monitor) would work, or is the intensity of the LED (i.e. the fact that it's not part of the monitor) part of the reason why it works?
- could you also talk about the heart-rate sensor - how do you use it / how does it affect the bpm algorithm?
OMG. I could not do this. I hope it's useful to others, but not for me...at all.
The biggest distraction for me, when working/focusing, is movement at the edge of my vision. You know, like most websites with their moving ads, or fly-out videos that no one asked for, etc.
I'm glad you found your silverbullet, but that specific approach would wreck my productivity.
Inspired by this post I threw together a new open source desktop app that has an annoying always on top window that has a flashing timer, this seems to accomplish the same thing. https://github.com/timsayshey/cringe-clock
Seems likely to be a placebo. You have a vested interest in it working, admit its not based on any sort of science, and one of the setup steps is to overcome distraction (which is the problem that’s trying to be solved).
My daughter suffers from functional seizures due to FND and we do something similar with counting. When she is suffering from a complex motor tic we will ask her to count at a "comfortable speed" - which is always 100+ counts per minute. She will then slow down the counting until we reach 60 counts per minute at which point she has usually transitioned to a less intrusive tic or she has ceased ticcing altogether.
> I just hammered a solution like any Ape with the shakes would need!
This is an underrated approach. Following hunches and suspicions often leads to solutions that a pure evidence-based approach might miss or delay; especially if your suspicion goes against the prevaling wisdom.
ChatGPT got me a similar HTML based solution with this prompt (F11 for full scren):
Create a simple web page with a red blinking LED in the top-left corner. The LED should start blinking at 150 BPM and gradually slow down to 60 BPM. The initial size of the LED should be 40px, and it should completely disappear during the "off" phase. Additionally, include a red box shadow during the "on" phase of the blink. Please use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the implementation. Adjust the code as needed for clarity and readability.
I used to think I had some ADHD symptoms: growing up I never did any revision for any of my school exams until a couple of days before, all my coursework and projects were done last minute in a week of intense focus, I've had issues with drugs in the past etc.
Then I met someone who actually has ADHD and saw them before they'd taken their stimulant drugs. They were completely nonfunctional in any sense of the word, they'd be trying to have five conversations with you at once and it took them about 30 minutes to put their shoes on, it looked like absolute hell.
Next to that I really don't have any issues and I don't think I'd be able to handle being prescribed psychoactive drugs.
Ever since meeting that person I've been a lot more hesitant to self-diagnose problems.
2. Things exist on a spectrum. The definition of it becoming a "disorder" is when it negatively affects your life enough.
During diagnosis a psychotherapist will be tasked with identifying traits of ADHD (IE; Markers), you will not have all markers. Everyone will have some.
Then those markers are investigated to discover how much they impact your quality of life. If it is above a certain threshold in aggregate then you are then diagnosed clinically as having "ADHD" and can be medicated.
What I mean is, for example: You can still have autism even if someone has significantly more severe autistic traits than you have.
Note that ADHD can manifest physically, mentally, or a combination of the two. I've been recently diagnosed with ADHD in my late 30s after finally seeing a psychiatrist, and at most my physical manifestation of it is minor fidgeting.
Where it really burns me is not being able to dedicate brainpower for more than a few minutes at a time, unless I'm in one of my "focus" modes. Similarly, my brain constantly has multiple tasks/"conversations" going on and I'm always thinking of something else. Additionally, I'm always chasing something novel to satisfy some dopamine hit.
I've honestly worked around a lot of the issues I deal with prior to being diagnosed, knowing when I'm not in a "focus" mode and trying to (gently) steer back to being productive. I joke about my "gaming ADHD" where I don't sit with a game for more than a half hour or so before moving on to something else. Internal dialogues are just something I work with.
Not saying you're right or wrong, but it's difficult to compare someone else's problems with your own (potential) issues.
e: Also note that there are non-stimulants on the market. I'm currently trialing one while I wait for a cardiologist to review some records for possible stimulant conflicts.
There are degrees to everything, and the same psych disorder can manifest in very different ways in different people.
I have been diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder. I "worry too much", in general, and have the odd panic attack or two per year. Some people have it bad enough they get these attacks daily.
That does not mean I don't have it or that it does not affect me, it just means it's mild in comparison to them, but my anxiety is still high compared to the average person when untreated. It does not have to be crippling to affect you.
>Self diagnoses (and diagnoses over the internet) are pretty harmful
Self-diagnoses can be legitimate or not - depends on the person doing them. They are often a necessity, in an environment where a professional diagnosis takes thousands of dollars or years in waiting (and is often done badly, by ill-informed professionals, like the many-decades prevailing myth that women/girls "can't be autistic", or that "ADD and autism can't coincide").
As (in this case) they are also based not on bloodwork or some physical indicators, but on a subjective assessment of a person's way of thinking, the person having the actual experience is often more qualified than the professional. Same to how you don't really need a doctor to tell you you're gay.
>One might even argue that the labeling aspect of a certain disorder (particularly a mental one) by a "professional" to not be particularly helpful too in addressing ones problems
One might argue that the false dichotomy between professionals and laymen, where the former is supposed to hold all the keys to knowledge and the latter to passively consult and follow the advice of the former, is a problem in itself.
And a little outdated in modern societies where the "laymen" are not some mud dwelling peasants who never went to school and only know farm work, but univercity-educated (even over-educated) in their own right, and libraries are not confined to the rich or the scholars, but every book ever written is a click away.
In any case, a self-diagnosis doesn't give you the required paperwork to get drugs, or to get benefits, or specific accomondations, or anything like that. So it's not like it hurts society by taking resources from "legitimate" diagnoses.
Last, but not least, pointing that X symptoms is "quite common to ADD/ADHD" is not self-diagnosis, it's not even diagnosing. It's a suggestion hinting to a possible condition. It could very well be used for seeking a professional diagnosis.
Or do you think people with ADD/ADHD just go to the doctor to get diagnosed out of the blue, and not because of some similar suspicion, spotting some unexplained symptoms or themselves, or identification with some symptoms they've read about?
IIUC, there are two main components to ADHD, and you can have one, the other or both. And all qualify as ADHD.
I'm likely ADHD, and the majority of my siblings have it. There's a night and day difference though between me, who in a questionnaire scored high on both, and me who scored high only in one[1].
[1] Well, borderline in one and not the other. Immediately after taking the questionnaire I attended a work meeting and realized that there were at least a half dozen questions that I answered optimistically through rose-tinted glasses.
With all that said, I'm working to address my sleep apnea before getting a diagnosis because I've heard that sleep deprivation can manifest similar to ADHD.
My wife has a copy of the DSM 5 on our bookshelf, and flipping through it I noted that very many disorders have diagnostic criteria that, beyond just having some symptoms, they cause significant distress or impairment of functioning.
I had a friend growing up who was diagnosed with ADHD quite young whose experience was similar to your story–he had major issues with school that ultimately led to him being expelled, not going to college, having trouble with work and family etc. I thought of him a lot as so many of my classmates in a hyper-competitive school environment discussed how they could get a diagnosis and medication to have an edge on college admissions or whatever.
I assume that is how most people get through high-school and university? Intense focus on the couple days before finals / final projects. I too did that. Is that not the case or is that warning lights for ADHD?
High school you can get away with it because the course content is easier - college is much more challenging...
Yup! I wish more people who say they have ADHD could have that experience. If someone says they have ADHD but they are unmedicated and they already are holding down a decent job but are only recently kind of struggling with something they called distraction or issues with focus... Then I say they don't have ADHD because it's so much more than that. It is issues with actual executive function. It is being unable to put your shoes on because you can't keep a straight train of thought because someone else is distracting you and you can't help but following all those threads of distraction while you are trying to perform a manual task.
I was this person most of my life until medication in my late 30s. For some reason (probably the ADHD) I never really payed attention to it but was always kind of vaguely aware that doing simple things like getting ready for the day, or any kind of planning always seemed much more difficult for me than most others. The worst is the kind of decision paralysis that would happen where you have all of these competing priorities shouting for your attention at once, and your mind rapidly flits between them until you are so exhausted you just check out and go read some hacker news... oh that's how I ended up here.
There's a good chance you do have ADHD. I was in a similar place to you, and it's important to know that it manifests differently in different people, and that there is a rebound effect when you stop your meds so what you might have seen may have been much worse than their unmedicated state. If you have the money I'd suggest just getting tested.
It presents in different ways. Someone isn't having 5 conversations, but could be drifting in and out of thoughts. It might just look like they aren't very interested. If it's more severe you would have more trouble controlling these kinds of things for a number of reasons related to the condition (poor executive function and impulse control).
I've met "people with ADHD" who seem to not have the condition at all, though pretty much always medicated. On the other hand, I've met people with far more clearcut symptoms, and I felt like I had way more in common with them. It sounded like they were living the exact same life.
I’d also suggest that any high IQ individual will by the very nature of being in an extreme of that IQ distribution exhibit some other behaviors that are in tails of the “normal” distribution for various behaviors.
I’ve had multiple people suggest to me I might have ADHD, it’s nonsense, I remember everything and don’t miss any deadlines. They observe me working simultaneously on many projects and since that is impossible for them, and frankly their memory is horrible, they don’t even remember correctly about the one project they are currently focused on, so suddenly they think this person is abnormal and hyper, ok they have ADHD.
I think Slack is a silent killer of productivity, and terrible for an ADHD brain:
You're either "engaged" and "available" (meaning you respond to messages in semi-real-time, pretty much nixing your ability to do deep work) or you feel like you're missing a lot of conversation that's going on behind your back, because you're heads down with Slack closed. Slack is good for (shitty) managers of remote teams, because you can see who's "in the office", and randomly ping people when your lack of planning skills means that you are working on something that you forgot to get an answer for in a deliberate way (instead of buzzing by their cube as you used to do)...but for developers I think it's a poor bargain.
There are better tools out there that encourage and support async workflows. Twist, Basecamp, Github discussions, even email with appropriate filters.
I was thinking of this in bed last night. I could focus more using our terrible messaging system prior to Slack. And there was less banter, pessimism, pile ons, etc that now show up in threads. Sometimes I regret replying in a thread when it goes 50+ messages deep and you get pinged on it each one unless you mute
While I know it's different for everyone and every workplace, I think Slack can be both good and bad for ADHD!
For me, while the distractions of Slack can be a problem, just as often my issue is less distraction than just needing an external motivator to get started. In that case, a sudden DM asking for an update or a request for help in a public channel may be the only way I ever get started actually working. (Obviously, this works best if your job is more about helping others in general than about getting specific tasks done.)
> There are better tools out there that encourage and support async workflows. Twist, Basecamp, Github discussions, even email with appropriate filters.
And devs will just set up a Slack bot to send an automated ping each time a task status changes in those tools.
You're right, but unfortunately, when your company uses it and teams are distributed, you don't have the choice, and you have to find some tricks to accommodate.
I’m 39. I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD/AS about 11 months ago, after having seen a psychiatrist complaining about chronic fatigue (cf. my Ask HN from two years ago [0]).
Methylphenidate has helped _immensely_. As has accepting the wiring of my brain, taking a two-months sabbatical, and practicing awareness about the ADHD habits. I’m having the year of my life. I can’t remember being productive this consistently basically ever.
Pauses. I am experimenting with basic scheme of 25 mins focus and then 5 mins pause. It is mind blowing how it lowers frustration and sort of ensures that I start work only on a clear task which I often tend to loose to easily.
The biggest surprise are the pauses (no, no email checking or web browsing; get up and move around). While formerly I experienced it that I don't have enough time to do what I want to do, I experience just the opposite of it during pauses. Now, what do I do in this time? Wow. That's new.
But also hard to stick to it. But there is more to it, the rules and principles that go along with it.
I've been in the diagnostic process for ADHD twice. First time I ended up losing all the paperwork, and getting kicked out of it. In the time between the first and second attempt, I developed PTSD which essentially stalled the second diagnostic as they could not cleanly differentiate between the two. For some reason, getting a diagnosis has been nearly impossible for me, despite each diagnostician saying "ADHD is highly likely", and the PTSD was a downstream effect of untreated ADHD.
I'm curious of any other developers have found effective, non-medication based ways to manage this.
Extremely relatable. Hyperfocus... I can easily spend over twenty hours focusing on something once I get in the zone, but it's extremely difficult to open the editor and start programming. Coping mechanisms and adaptative behaviors are all good and all but the power of lisdexamfetamine cannot be underestimated.
I read that whole thing and didn’t read one word about nutrition?
I’ve come along way to understanding the nutritional metabolic pathways that may increase the symptoms of ADHD.
Pyridoxine, or B6, is the most studied nutritional factor when it comes to reducing ADHD symptoms. I’m not saying this is the only cause of ADHD, but if this works other things might work as well. Zinc is a good possibility on the list also.
For me, as I’ve gone through this journey - a key takeaway from understanding myself better is that commuting to and working from an office is far worse for my health than I thought and not something I could go back to doing.
An office is a place that’s very hostile to the majority of folks with ADHD and can have considerable health impacts. Its disruptions, lighting, heating, noises and work space disrupt my comfort, flow, mood and enthusiasm. It’s not something I’d go back to doing again - and because of that I’m healthier, happier, get considerably more work done, and want to engage socially more outside of work.
It’s great to see accessible articles like this become popular, I think it’s also important to make sure that all the mitigating strategies don’t end up falling solely with the individual, but we that we also work towards a healthier, more inclusive, working society.
One key identifier not mentioned in the article is that ADHD, as well as manically depressed, people typically produce extremely low levels of serotonin. It is common for ADHD people to compensate with stimulants like caffeine and sugar.
Many people crave minor stimulants in the afternoon or early morning when serotonin levels dip in the day. People chronically low on serotonin however will crave these all day long in extreme volumes in what looks like drug addiction seeking behavior. The result of such stimulant over consumption produces behaviors that appear like rapid bipolar disorders.
This does not apply to all people with ADHD, but when you see the behavior in people close to you it’s probably a good idea to have them tested.
My biggest learning about ADHD is that it’s not primarily about focus, but irregularities with task completion/transition deficiencies.
I swear that every time I read an article by somebody who claims they've been diagnosed with ADHD, it is the same formula: "when I was a child...", "I didn't know what it was", ..., "I was finally diagnosed with ADHD", then finally "I have super powers no one else has so I will use them to my advantage".
Also, this blog post misses body doubling which is incredibly helpful and can even be done virtually with focusmate or a similar service (I use focusmate personally but I do want to spam so no referral link or crap like that). Indeed, for me the only way to swallow a frog is focusmate.
One of the more interesting things about ADHD is that some of the things ADHD sufferers call "coping strategies" (using calendars, writing documentation) are actually just really good ideas for anyone.
The twin demons of diminishing returns and hyperbolic discounting mean that people who don't need to have these systems in place for the current demands of their lives, usually don't have them in place. ADHD sufferers probably get more out of implementing and following these systems on the margin, so they're paradoxically more likely to reach for them than the average person. (I predict Getting Things Done is popular with both high powered executives of all kinds and middle of the road ADHD laden office workers.) But current demands being low rarely predicts future demands staying low, and having a habit of working with these things already deeply engrained is a really, really good idea even if your Todo list only has "Get out of bed", "Finish Breaking Bad S4" and "Get back in bed" on it.
This article is really good and a useful summation of things I've felt and tried to explain, going to pass it on to my partner!
The only thing that I found interesting was with regards to choosing focus days, as I just cannot do that - I don't know hour to hour whether I will be able to focus or not, it's always a total battle.
However, my hack is that when coding I need to watch something silly: like cooking shows, reality tv etc - something I can partially ignore.
This was a fix I discovered about 20 years ago and it's helped me ever since, I've always described it as keeping the child portion of my brain happy whilst the adult portion gets on with its job.
I was diagnosed with inattentive ADHD (what was ADD) 8 months ago, medication really helps with emotional regulation and staying on task - yet I can still code better when I'm watching some random rubbish.
I love how this community has such a disproportionate number of people who have ADHD. It's almost like programming is actually just incredibly difficult to pay attention to for any normal human being and the field is competitive enough that people basically have to find a way to get a prescription for stimulants.
(Honestly not trying to discredit anyone actually suffering from ADHD, just seem implausible to me that so many have it given that programming also just requires an unhealthy amount of attention to finish tasks in a "timely" manner).
Here's another hack: 10mg Methylphenidate. YMMV, but the alternative is a boat load of systems, routines, caffeine, which all may or may not work depending on how the day/week is going. Not a panacea to be sure, but for those adults with ADHD inattentive where dopamine deficiency impacts executive functioning it can be essential (and incredibly effective).
Had me until "Obsidian" - absolute worst thing ever for my ADHD. Hours spent tinkering ... experimenting with plugins. I was on the verge of developing plugins before I realized: I wasn't getting anything done. I gave up and went with OneNote. The freeform canvas is a godsend for my ADHD (I am able to lay things out spatially left and right), but I'm not able to tinker with it as much anymore.
What is everyone’s experience getting officially diagnosed and treated? I match up pretty closely with textbook symptoms and all of the free online “tests” indicate I should get treated for it… but how? I’ve found places that offer an ADHD screening at the tune of multiple thousands, not in network with any insurance, but those places don’t also treat it. I’m more interested in pharmacological treatments rather than typical therapy (after over 40 years, I’ve developed coping mechanisms like the author), but it’s hard to choose what type of doctor is best here.
What experiences does everyone here have?
[+] [-] TheRealHB|2 years ago|reply
A simple Hack that still works for me after years:
1. Place a tiny LED (red or yellow) by the side of your monitor or virtually on the screen corner. Basically anywhere almost bordering your field of view.
2. Make it blink like a fast heartbeat (120-150 bpm) and gradually slowdown to around 60 bpm (or your slow heartbeat base). Make the slope approx 20 to 60 minutes (you can adjust the best rate by testing in 10m increments after a few days in one setting).
Now...
3. Get to work regardless if distracted and agitated. Close all apps except what you need to work and BOOM!, let the magic happen. Without realising, your brain will try to sync with the light that you can barely see, calming you down and allowing you to go focus-mode with the task in had.
Works like hypnosis!
It is also a cheap hack... I build my unit with a cheap ESP32 and heart-rate sensor to sync deeper and dynamically adjust the slope...
Will explain better if any interest.
No science behind (only principles), I just hammered a solution like any Ape with the shakes would need!
[+] [-] gregsadetsky|2 years ago|reply
- once the LED has slowed down to 60 bpm, do you keep it at that tempo for the rest of the day? for a few hours? do you ever go back to 120 bpm and then go back down?
- generally speaking, how did you come up with the idea?
- do you think that a software version (i.e. some blinking pixels in the top right corner of a monitor) would work, or is the intensity of the LED (i.e. the fact that it's not part of the monitor) part of the reason why it works?
- could you also talk about the heart-rate sensor - how do you use it / how does it affect the bpm algorithm?
Thanks!
[+] [-] sonicanatidae|2 years ago|reply
The biggest distraction for me, when working/focusing, is movement at the edge of my vision. You know, like most websites with their moving ads, or fly-out videos that no one asked for, etc.
I'm glad you found your silverbullet, but that specific approach would wreck my productivity.
[+] [-] timsayshey|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nonethewiser|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] koonsolo|2 years ago|reply
Isn't this the part that actually does the heavy lifting to get stuff done?
[+] [-] scns|2 years ago|reply
Started out with this one and hacked a bit on it, never published my version though: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.axet.binauralbeat...
Now i'm pretty content with this one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.project.rb...
And this tune, it now is on my phone and every PC thanks to NewPipe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6WNB9JN_2o
[+] [-] monkeydreams|2 years ago|reply
> I just hammered a solution like any Ape with the shakes would need!
This is an underrated approach. Following hunches and suspicions often leads to solutions that a pure evidence-based approach might miss or delay; especially if your suspicion goes against the prevaling wisdom.
[+] [-] loco5niner|2 years ago|reply
Create a simple web page with a red blinking LED in the top-left corner. The LED should start blinking at 150 BPM and gradually slow down to 60 BPM. The initial size of the LED should be 40px, and it should completely disappear during the "off" phase. Additionally, include a red box shadow during the "on" phase of the blink. Please use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the implementation. Adjust the code as needed for clarity and readability.
[+] [-] JaDogg|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] decodingchris|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mathieuh|2 years ago|reply
Then I met someone who actually has ADHD and saw them before they'd taken their stimulant drugs. They were completely nonfunctional in any sense of the word, they'd be trying to have five conversations with you at once and it took them about 30 minutes to put their shoes on, it looked like absolute hell.
Next to that I really don't have any issues and I don't think I'd be able to handle being prescribed psychoactive drugs.
Ever since meeting that person I've been a lot more hesitant to self-diagnose problems.
[+] [-] dijit|2 years ago|reply
1. Self-diagnosis is not a diagnosis.
2. Things exist on a spectrum. The definition of it becoming a "disorder" is when it negatively affects your life enough.
During diagnosis a psychotherapist will be tasked with identifying traits of ADHD (IE; Markers), you will not have all markers. Everyone will have some.
Then those markers are investigated to discover how much they impact your quality of life. If it is above a certain threshold in aggregate then you are then diagnosed clinically as having "ADHD" and can be medicated.
What I mean is, for example: You can still have autism even if someone has significantly more severe autistic traits than you have.
[+] [-] slipperlobster|2 years ago|reply
Where it really burns me is not being able to dedicate brainpower for more than a few minutes at a time, unless I'm in one of my "focus" modes. Similarly, my brain constantly has multiple tasks/"conversations" going on and I'm always thinking of something else. Additionally, I'm always chasing something novel to satisfy some dopamine hit.
I've honestly worked around a lot of the issues I deal with prior to being diagnosed, knowing when I'm not in a "focus" mode and trying to (gently) steer back to being productive. I joke about my "gaming ADHD" where I don't sit with a game for more than a half hour or so before moving on to something else. Internal dialogues are just something I work with.
Not saying you're right or wrong, but it's difficult to compare someone else's problems with your own (potential) issues.
e: Also note that there are non-stimulants on the market. I'm currently trialing one while I wait for a cardiologist to review some records for possible stimulant conflicts.
[+] [-] gibagger|2 years ago|reply
I have been diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder. I "worry too much", in general, and have the odd panic attack or two per year. Some people have it bad enough they get these attacks daily.
That does not mean I don't have it or that it does not affect me, it just means it's mild in comparison to them, but my anxiety is still high compared to the average person when untreated. It does not have to be crippling to affect you.
[+] [-] coldblues|2 years ago|reply
>Self diagnoses (and diagnoses over the internet) are pretty harmful
Self-diagnoses can be legitimate or not - depends on the person doing them. They are often a necessity, in an environment where a professional diagnosis takes thousands of dollars or years in waiting (and is often done badly, by ill-informed professionals, like the many-decades prevailing myth that women/girls "can't be autistic", or that "ADD and autism can't coincide").
As (in this case) they are also based not on bloodwork or some physical indicators, but on a subjective assessment of a person's way of thinking, the person having the actual experience is often more qualified than the professional. Same to how you don't really need a doctor to tell you you're gay.
>One might even argue that the labeling aspect of a certain disorder (particularly a mental one) by a "professional" to not be particularly helpful too in addressing ones problems
One might argue that the false dichotomy between professionals and laymen, where the former is supposed to hold all the keys to knowledge and the latter to passively consult and follow the advice of the former, is a problem in itself.
And a little outdated in modern societies where the "laymen" are not some mud dwelling peasants who never went to school and only know farm work, but univercity-educated (even over-educated) in their own right, and libraries are not confined to the rich or the scholars, but every book ever written is a click away.
In any case, a self-diagnosis doesn't give you the required paperwork to get drugs, or to get benefits, or specific accomondations, or anything like that. So it's not like it hurts society by taking resources from "legitimate" diagnoses.
Last, but not least, pointing that X symptoms is "quite common to ADD/ADHD" is not self-diagnosis, it's not even diagnosing. It's a suggestion hinting to a possible condition. It could very well be used for seeking a professional diagnosis.
Or do you think people with ADD/ADHD just go to the doctor to get diagnosed out of the blue, and not because of some similar suspicion, spotting some unexplained symptoms or themselves, or identification with some symptoms they've read about?
[+] [-] swsieber|2 years ago|reply
I'm likely ADHD, and the majority of my siblings have it. There's a night and day difference though between me, who in a questionnaire scored high on both, and me who scored high only in one[1].
[1] Well, borderline in one and not the other. Immediately after taking the questionnaire I attended a work meeting and realized that there were at least a half dozen questions that I answered optimistically through rose-tinted glasses.
With all that said, I'm working to address my sleep apnea before getting a diagnosis because I've heard that sleep deprivation can manifest similar to ADHD.
[+] [-] macNchz|2 years ago|reply
I had a friend growing up who was diagnosed with ADHD quite young whose experience was similar to your story–he had major issues with school that ultimately led to him being expelled, not going to college, having trouble with work and family etc. I thought of him a lot as so many of my classmates in a hyper-competitive school environment discussed how they could get a diagnosis and medication to have an edge on college admissions or whatever.
[+] [-] boringg|2 years ago|reply
High school you can get away with it because the course content is easier - college is much more challenging...
[+] [-] navjack27|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paradox242|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sudosysgen|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BagelGuy|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] P_I_Staker|2 years ago|reply
I've met "people with ADHD" who seem to not have the condition at all, though pretty much always medicated. On the other hand, I've met people with far more clearcut symptoms, and I felt like I had way more in common with them. It sounded like they were living the exact same life.
[+] [-] unknown|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] alchemist1e9|2 years ago|reply
I’ve had multiple people suggest to me I might have ADHD, it’s nonsense, I remember everything and don’t miss any deadlines. They observe me working simultaneously on many projects and since that is impossible for them, and frankly their memory is horrible, they don’t even remember correctly about the one project they are currently focused on, so suddenly they think this person is abnormal and hyper, ok they have ADHD.
[+] [-] Aeglaecia|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smallerfish|2 years ago|reply
You're either "engaged" and "available" (meaning you respond to messages in semi-real-time, pretty much nixing your ability to do deep work) or you feel like you're missing a lot of conversation that's going on behind your back, because you're heads down with Slack closed. Slack is good for (shitty) managers of remote teams, because you can see who's "in the office", and randomly ping people when your lack of planning skills means that you are working on something that you forgot to get an answer for in a deliberate way (instead of buzzing by their cube as you used to do)...but for developers I think it's a poor bargain.
There are better tools out there that encourage and support async workflows. Twist, Basecamp, Github discussions, even email with appropriate filters.
[+] [-] throwoutway|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skywhopper|2 years ago|reply
For me, while the distractions of Slack can be a problem, just as often my issue is less distraction than just needing an external motivator to get started. In that case, a sudden DM asking for an update or a request for help in a public channel may be the only way I ever get started actually working. (Obviously, this works best if your job is more about helping others in general than about getting specific tasks done.)
[+] [-] WendyTheWillow|2 years ago|reply
Every tool that is built for async communication will have the problems you listed.
[+] [-] rchaud|2 years ago|reply
And devs will just set up a Slack bot to send an automated ping each time a task status changes in those tools.
[+] [-] rlemaitre|2 years ago|reply
You're right, but unfortunately, when your company uses it and teams are distributed, you don't have the choice, and you have to find some tricks to accommodate.
[+] [-] nathell|2 years ago|reply
Methylphenidate has helped _immensely_. As has accepting the wiring of my brain, taking a two-months sabbatical, and practicing awareness about the ADHD habits. I’m having the year of my life. I can’t remember being productive this consistently basically ever.
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29768418
[+] [-] hyllos|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] icepat|2 years ago|reply
I'm curious of any other developers have found effective, non-medication based ways to manage this.
[+] [-] matheusmoreira|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Podgajski|2 years ago|reply
I’ve come along way to understanding the nutritional metabolic pathways that may increase the symptoms of ADHD.
Pyridoxine, or B6, is the most studied nutritional factor when it comes to reducing ADHD symptoms. I’m not saying this is the only cause of ADHD, but if this works other things might work as well. Zinc is a good possibility on the list also.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24321736/
According to our data, multi-year pyridoxine treatment normalizes completely the pattern of ADHD behavior, without causing any serious side effects.
[+] [-] smcleod|2 years ago|reply
The only part I disagree with is hybrid work.
For me, as I’ve gone through this journey - a key takeaway from understanding myself better is that commuting to and working from an office is far worse for my health than I thought and not something I could go back to doing.
An office is a place that’s very hostile to the majority of folks with ADHD and can have considerable health impacts. Its disruptions, lighting, heating, noises and work space disrupt my comfort, flow, mood and enthusiasm. It’s not something I’d go back to doing again - and because of that I’m healthier, happier, get considerably more work done, and want to engage socially more outside of work.
It’s great to see accessible articles like this become popular, I think it’s also important to make sure that all the mitigating strategies don’t end up falling solely with the individual, but we that we also work towards a healthier, more inclusive, working society.
[+] [-] austin-cheney|2 years ago|reply
Many people crave minor stimulants in the afternoon or early morning when serotonin levels dip in the day. People chronically low on serotonin however will crave these all day long in extreme volumes in what looks like drug addiction seeking behavior. The result of such stimulant over consumption produces behaviors that appear like rapid bipolar disorders.
This does not apply to all people with ADHD, but when you see the behavior in people close to you it’s probably a good idea to have them tested.
My biggest learning about ADHD is that it’s not primarily about focus, but irregularities with task completion/transition deficiencies.
[+] [-] upupupandaway|2 years ago|reply
I would love to see an ADHD version of the horoscope/personality tests administered by Stagner and Forer. I predict the effect would be the same. This study seems to be on this track: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07067437221082...
[+] [-] chx|2 years ago|reply
> Every morning, I start my day by planning it out in a custom template that displays my Google Calendar events and Todoist task list.
For real? One of the best ADHD tools I am aware of is called the Anti Planner.
It doesn't take long to find posts like "why to-do lists don't work for people with ADHD" https://coachjessicamichaels.com/2022/03/30/why-to-do-lists-...
Also, this blog post misses body doubling which is incredibly helpful and can even be done virtually with focusmate or a similar service (I use focusmate personally but I do want to spam so no referral link or crap like that). Indeed, for me the only way to swallow a frog is focusmate.
[+] [-] hiAndrewQuinn|2 years ago|reply
The twin demons of diminishing returns and hyperbolic discounting mean that people who don't need to have these systems in place for the current demands of their lives, usually don't have them in place. ADHD sufferers probably get more out of implementing and following these systems on the margin, so they're paradoxically more likely to reach for them than the average person. (I predict Getting Things Done is popular with both high powered executives of all kinds and middle of the road ADHD laden office workers.) But current demands being low rarely predicts future demands staying low, and having a habit of working with these things already deeply engrained is a really, really good idea even if your Todo list only has "Get out of bed", "Finish Breaking Bad S4" and "Get back in bed" on it.
[+] [-] ddmf|2 years ago|reply
The only thing that I found interesting was with regards to choosing focus days, as I just cannot do that - I don't know hour to hour whether I will be able to focus or not, it's always a total battle.
However, my hack is that when coding I need to watch something silly: like cooking shows, reality tv etc - something I can partially ignore.
This was a fix I discovered about 20 years ago and it's helped me ever since, I've always described it as keeping the child portion of my brain happy whilst the adult portion gets on with its job.
I was diagnosed with inattentive ADHD (what was ADD) 8 months ago, medication really helps with emotional regulation and staying on task - yet I can still code better when I'm watching some random rubbish.
[+] [-] ShamelessC|2 years ago|reply
(Honestly not trying to discredit anyone actually suffering from ADHD, just seem implausible to me that so many have it given that programming also just requires an unhealthy amount of attention to finish tasks in a "timely" manner).
[+] [-] danielbln|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deafpolygon|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LeafItAlone|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VoidWhisperer|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] karpour|2 years ago|reply